Obscuring Kaepernick’s Truth ~ Symbols as Political Points

The Nike craze of whether burning or buying, I don’t know what pisses me off more… Nike claims it’ll be donating to Kaepernick’s charity “Know Your Rights” (but it hasn’t been formally announced by Nike yet – ah yeah, right) to raise awareness of “higher education, self-empowerment, and “instruction to properly interact with law enforcement in various scenarios”. Excuse me, PROPERLY INTERACT??? Like when police murdered 12-year-old Tamir Rice within 1.3 seconds of arrival, or maybe 7-year-old Aiyana Jones asleep on the couch, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner or the 684 people killed by police so far this year? What percentage is going charity? And what is going into Nike’s pocket? And then what’s happening to the slave laborers who are already working 12-hour shifts 7 days a week for about 20₡ an hour? They can’t add any more days to the week so is Nike adding more hours to their day? Is this raising awareness or is it just shooting back at Trump and his groupies to piss them off, nanny, nanny, nanny?

As for the idiots who already spent a small fortune on Nike products, wow, like burning them is really hurting Nike who already suckered them out of their money. Then there’s air quality, where’s BBQ Betty when you need her? It’s illegal to burn trash; just think how toxic burning rubber is? Where’s Smokey the Bear? Don’t we have enough of the US burning now?

Before these people make someone/something a symbol for their political point they should make sure to actually listen and stop using a stupid piece of cloth, a dumb song or articles of clothing as a cover for their racism/activism. If they don’t care and can’t be bothered or concerned about police brutality, just admit it and own up to their position.

There are more 49,933 homeless veterans. On average, 20 veterans die by suicide each day. Taking a knee isn’t disrespectful to veterans, stealing VA Benefits and leaving veteran’s to die is, but kneeling isn’t about veterans, kneeling is about police violence.

Most people who complain have done NOTHING for this country but stand for a song claiming they’re soooooooo patriotic, but won’t give a dime to a veteran standing on the corner. There are more than 13 million children living in “food insecure” homes and 16 million children, roughly one in five living in poverty. The United States of America can afford to house every homeless veteran, feed every child, and take in every refugee while still having plenty of money left over for a 30 oz. container of Starbucks bottom of the barrel burnt bean ashtray coffee and a family size bucket of chemically enhanced genetically engineered chicken from KFC.

Where were Nike, burners, and buyers when Kaepernick first took a knee? As White people stand for the National Anthem, most of them sit in careless silence as police kill Black and Brown people while hiding behind the baseless excuse of “I feared for my life.” In the United States people value guns, flags and fake acts of patriotism over people, pain and real acts of courage.

Keep ignoring the fact people are kneeling in support of those who are unable to stand, or kneel, shot down or choked to death by police who don’t even get their hand slapped. That’s what we are protesting! Not the flag, not the military and not the country allegedly allowing for freedom of speech.

“Actions speak louder than words, right?” Kneeling is not disrespect; in fact, it is a sign of profound respect and humility. When a person prays, they kneel. When a soldier honors a fallen compatriot, they kneel. When a Mother is crying over her slain child in the street, she kneels. Instead of looting, lynching, bombing and terrorizing, when a person kneels it is not to dishonor, it is to say we as a collective people should have the right to be able to kneel for freedom. To not be in fear for our lives, to be able to have the same rights as all citizens. The action got attention, didn’t it?

Never lose sight of his original purpose, for Colin Kaepernick is demonstrating the true meaning of the term “By any means necessary” by his unselfish generosity of time, money and loss of career. Nike and the burners are faking patriotism by masking their disdain for racial injustice; both are capitalizing on Kaepernick’s name and his heroic stance against police brutality.

Kristeen Irigoyen-HernandezHuman Rights Advocate, Researcher/Chronological Archivist and member in good standing with the Constitution First Amendment Press Association (CFAPA.org)